When you spend your days renovating other people’s houses, the last thing you want to do is more of the same at your own place. That was both the motivation and the impediment for Martha Huk and James Blokker.

The two engineers, whose home design and renovation company Hedgeford & Berkley keeps them working hard to realize others’ dreams, had visions of coming home to a relaxing outdoor oasis. But their backyard was a neglected wasteland.

“There was nothing,” Huk said. “There was a yellow climbing frame, a catch-all area where we dumped everything while renovating the house, and no grass. I dreamed of, after a busy day, curling up on a comfortable couch with a glass of wine and a good book.

“Renovating all day, we wanted to come home to something nice. We started from scratch.”

Like most homeowners, when they purchased their home about 21/2 years ago, they concentrated on the interior.

The first step was to create a plan from their wish list of sunken lounge, hot tub and dining area, with a new garage for Blokker. The sunken lounge would be intimate and sheltered even on cold evenings, a cocoon in which to escape the cares of the day. The hot tub would be the party area, but still connected to the other “rooms.” “The hot tub takes a lot of room,” said Blokker, “so the middle area should be easy to walk through.” The dining area provides space for friends to congregate.

On a warm, early-autumn day, Huk said, “This weather is perfect for the garden. You can spend the cool evening by the fire and then jump in the hot tub. I love doing dinner parties where everyone can come and hang out and relax.”

Blokker said the concept was to create a rooftop lounge, or a resort feel.

Starting at the house with the gazebo-like dining deck, down the steps into the lounge, then back up to the hot tub deck with strings of lights, it’s easy to imagine you’ve been transported to a resort.

Achieving it was no small feat. It was time-consuming, backbreaking manual labour.

“It was tough to come home and have to start,” Huk said. “We worked nights and weekends. It was very labour-intensive. We used chainsaws and axes for the tree roots, taking time to do it right.”

They removed three trees that had been poorly maintained or were causing damage to the rest of the property, including one that was growing into the roof. “Some people said we should take them all out, but this is the Old South and that’s not the feel,” Blokker said.

The clay soil increased the toil. “When you dig it up, it stays in shape,” he said. Like cement when dry and a quagmire of heavy mud when wet, the clay slowed their progress.

Blokker also said proper drainage required a lot of planning, both within the property and how not to affect surrounding properties. “You have to build it into your plan from the beginning, think that far ahead and have the technical knowledge.”

One friend, who works at a garden centre, emailed plant photographs for Huk to choose.

“The next day they showed up with a van of plants and two guys to install them.”

Huk built the fence with her sister, a first for both. Its clean lines of dark painted wood and gleaming aluminum provide a striking backdrop for the garden.

“I wanted something that is different that you don’t see every day,” she said. The challenge was most of her idea samples were in California where winter doesn’t cause wood to expand and contract.

Blokker said next time they would use engineered plastic rather than spruce.

DIYers often forget, or aren’t aware, of building codes or creative solutions. Being mechanical engineers in the business helped Huk and Blokker incorporate elements in different ways.

“Always there is an easy way and a creative way,” Huk said. “Most homeowners don’t know there are alternatives.”

For example, the lounge is dug down a metre so the required one-metre retaining walls become raised gardens. Tall wild grasses add to the secluded feel. A boxwood edge and perennial sedum and campanula provide definition and colour.

They measured carefully for easy conversation across the pit as well as flow around it. “It takes time to think about those things, but it makes a difference,” Huk said.

She uses the lounge to ponder current projects. “I love being able to come home, sit and relax. I think about all the projects I’m working on. Being surrounded by an inspiring environment is my chance to come up with something better. Being in a creative place affects productivity. It changes how I feel.”

Blokker says they aren’t quite done. Next summer they plan to build boxes for a vegetable garden, adding another way to use the space.

Advice

“This took a long time,” Huk said. “Do you want to start digging a garden or taking an axe to tree roots? No.”

Blokker advised doing only what you like to do. “It’s worth your time to be able to relax with friends and to know that something is finished.”

They agreed that many people start a project and their initial enthusiasm turns to a “good enough” attitude, or even worse, to hatred. When frustrated DIYers give in and say something is good enough, it usually isn’t down the road. And that means calling in a professional sometime later to redo the project.

“They get to a point they can’t stand it,” Huk said. “If you want to be involved, there are so many details, there is enough work you don’t have to do all of it. A lot of homeowners have a lot of enthusiasm, that’s the time to have the professional designers. We know what can happen, what tasks should have a professional and what you can do yourself.”